The Astros jumped all over Zack Wheeler hitting 3 doubles on his first 4 pitches, virtually ending the game in the first inning, especially with them having Framber Valdez on the bump.
Valdez began the top of the first by getting Kyle Schwarber to groundout, he walked Rhys Hoskins but then really locked in his command especially with his curveball against J.T. Realmuto, who struck out on that pitch. Framber got the final out of the inning in the form of a Bryce Harper lineout. While Framber’s curveball is his best weapon he primarily only uses it against right handed hitters, his cutter which he uses a lot against left handed hitters is still a very good pitch. Against LHB his cutter has a .117 BAA and a .193 xSLG. In the bottom half of the first the Astros offense started off with a trio of doubles, Jose Altuve jumped on a first pitch center cut sinker for a 103.8 mph EV double into left field. Jeremy Pena also jumped on the first pitch he saw, a middle middle curveball that he pulled down the third base line for a 100.4 mph EV double. While Yordan Alvarez didn’t jump on the first pitch like Altuve and Pena, he wasted little time putting the second pitch he saw, a slider in the top part of the zone, off of the out of town scoreboard for another hard hit double. Wheeler finally got his first couple of outs on a groundout then a flyout, which had a 99.7 mph EV and 97.6 mph EV respectively. Yordan made a risky tag on the flyout getting to 3B, which paid off when Edmundo Sosa made a throwing error on what should have been an inning ending groundout, which made the game 3-0 instead of 2-0. Wheeler struck out Aledmys Diaz to get out of the inning. Five of the six balls put in play by the Astros were hard hit, as they gave Wheeler no time to settle in and did damage on 2 pitches left in the middle of the plate and an elevated breaking ball. Wheeler started to lock in his command after the first 3 hitters, but the damage was already done.
Framber threw a 3100+ rpm curveball to strike out Nick Castellanos. He walked Alec Bohm then struck out Jean Segura on 3 pitches, throwing another 3000+ rpm curveball to catch him looking. Matt Vierling grounded out, as the Phillies did nothing with their one out walk for the second time in two innings. In the bottom half of the second, Chas McCormick drew a leadoff walk after falling behind in the count 1-2. Wheeler didn’t let it spark anything however striking out Martin Maldonado on 3 pitches, getting Altuve to pop up, and Pena to line out to SS. Wheeler is locking in his breaking stuff, he didn’t throw a single one of them in the zone, as they were all in the swing and miss shadow part of the zone.
The Phillies got their first hit of the game in the top of the third, but not before Framber struck out Sosa on a sinker after throwing him 6 straight curveballs. The hit came off the bat of Schwarber who dumped a sinker into right field. Rhys Hoskins then struck out on 3 pitches, whiffing at 2 straight 3000+ rpm curveballs in the process. Realmuto grounded out to end the top of the third. Wheeler started out the bottom of the third with what was effectively a pitch around to Yordan Alvarez, only throwing him one pitch in the zone, as Yordan took his 5 pitch walk. Alex Bregman hit into a double play, the groundout had a .550 xBA. Kyle Tucker flew out, recording another hard hit ball in the process, so far seven of the ten balls put in play against Wheeler were hard hit.
In the top of the fourth, Framber shut down the 4-5-6 of the Phillies lineup. Striking out Bryce Harper on an exactly 3000 rpm curveball, getting Castellanos to groundout on the first pitch of the at-bat, and catching Bohm looking on a sinker at the bottom of the zone. Bohm had to have been sitting on a curveball after whiffing on one the previous pitch. Framber is placing his stuff wherever he wants, especially the curve. Wheeler started off his part of the fourth by inducing two groundouts. He couldn’t go 1-2-3 however, as Chas McCormick continues to stay hot and give the Astros quality AB’s, taking a center cut sinker back up the middle for a base hit. Maldonado looked to add fuel to the possible 2 out rally with a .570 xBA line drive, and likely would have if someone else was playing 3B, not the 6′ 5″ Alec Bohm who made a jumping catch to end the inning.
Jean Segura leads off the fifth with a single, slapping an outside sinker the other way into right field. Immediately after that, Framber did what Framber does getting a double play ground ball, erasing the leadoff hit. On the year, Framber had a ground ball percentage of 66.5%, which is good for first among all qualified starters. He’s not only first, he is comfortably first, with the next closest starter being Logan Webb who had a ground ball rate 9.8% lower than Framber’s. Valdez ended his half of the fifth with a front door sinker to strikeout Sosa looking. In the bottom of the fifth, just like Segura, Altuve hit a leadoff single except the events after Altuve’s were a little different than those after Segura’s. Pena struck out on 3 pitches, as he was trying to do too much and put an uncompetitive swing on a curve way outside. Yordan then grounded into a fielder’s choice, hustling out the grounder to keep the inning alive. While it might have seemed minor in the moment, Yordan hustling out the ground ball was huge, as Bregman hit a 2 run bomb on a center cut slider. That homer never happens if the sequence of events before it doesn’t occur. McCormick hitting that single in the inning before allowed Altuve to lead off this inning, not Maldonado. Also Yordan beating out the throw to first, if neither of those things happened, Breggy wouldn’t have even come up to bat in the bottom of the fifth. Wheeler followed up the homer with a 4 pitch walk to Tucker, then got out of the inning with a groundout off the bat of Yuli Gurriel.
The top of the sixth was the first inning where Framber ran into some trouble, allowing a lead off walk to Kyle Schwarber. Hoskins then followed up the walk with a single into left center field. With two on and no out Realmuto struck out on a fastball above the zone. Framber Valdez once again induced a double play ground ball this time off the bat of Bryce Harper to get out of the two on no out jam. The Phillies turned to Andrew Bellatti in the bottom half of the sixth, ending Zack Wheeler’s night. Wheeler allowed 6 hits, 3 walks, and 5 runs 4 of which were earned over the course of his 5 innings. Eleven of the Eighteen balls put in play against him were hard hit, his command was solid but whenever he made a mistake in the zone the Astros were sure to do damage. Bellatti went 1-2-3 against the bottom of the Astros order, getting a pop out, groundout, and a strikeout. Bellatti only needed 11 pitches to get through the sixth, 10 of those being his slider. In 2022, Bellatti’s slider had a .189 xBAA and a 41.6% whiff rate.
The Astros trotted Framber back out for the top of the seventh, where Nick Castellanos hit a leadoff double, winning an 8 pitch battle against him. Then Alec Bohm recorded a hard hit ball on his groundout which allowed Castellanos to advance to 3rd. That would be it for Framber Valdez who was sitting at 104 pitches. Framber Framberized the Phillies getting all but one of his 19 outs via the groundout or strikeout. He struck out 9 and garnered 15 whiffs across his 6.1 innings of work. He was flat out dominant, the Phillies had no hope at all against him and whenever there was a little spark, Framber induced a double play ground ball. Rafael Montero was called upon to finish off the top of the seventh, he got Jean Segura to fly out, however Castellanos tagged and scored in the process. The Phillies would then take Matt Vierling out of the game opting to go to Nick Maton in a pinch hit opportunity. Maton would lineout to 3B to end the top half of the inning. Connor Brogdon would get the ball in the bottom of the seventh facing the top of the Astros lineup. Jose Altuve would welcome Brogdon to the World Series by taking a ball at neck level and shooting it into right field for his third hit of the game. Altuve would then be caught stealing on the fourth pitch of Pena’s at-bat. Pena would end his at-bat with a flyout to center. Yordan Alvarez would then strikeout on a changeup below the zone to end the inning.
Astros manager Dusty Baker would opt to leave Rafael Montero in to start off the top of the eighth. Baker was reluctant to take out Montero even after Bryson Stott fouled off 6 pitches on his way to a 12 pitch walk, and Kyle Schwarber hit 2 balls that were both extremely close to being homers. Schwarber got 7 straight 4-seamers in his AB, the sixth one he hit home run distance but just foul, then on the seventh one he hit it just a couple feet short of a homer. Instead it was a flyout to right field, Rhys Hoskins would then strikeout on 4 pitches. It appeared as if Montero was about to get out of the inning when J.T. Realmuto hit a ball that should have been a groundout to shortstop, but a miscommunication between Pena and Altuve where the ball ended up being tossed to no one allowed Realmuto to reach and Stott to get all the way to 3rd, it also allowed Bryce Harper to come up to the plate in a big spot, down 4 with runners on 1st and 3rd. But Montero was able to spoil another Harper moment getting him to pop out into shallow right field, with Jeremy Pena running it down and making an over the shoulder catch. Brad Hand got the ball in the bottom of the eighth, going 1-2-3, getting a strikeout, a .050 xBA groundout, and a .020 xBA flyout. His slider was the out pitch to all 3 hitters, in 2022 Hand’s slider had 9% more vertical break and 60% more horizontal break than those within 2 mph and 0.5 feet of extension and release of Hand’s.
The Astros would turn to Ryan Pressly for the top of ninth to cut down the Phillies and close out game 2. Pressly would strikeout Castellanos on a changeup, but then allow a double to Alec Bohm off of his curveball. It was good on good, as Bohm hit .349 against curveballs this year, while Pressly allowed only a .133 BAA on his curveball. Jean Segura would then fly out to right field putting the Astros one out away from evening the series. That out almost came from Brandon Marsh but Yuli Gurriel made an error on what should have been the game ending groundout. The error allowed Bohm to score and Marsh to reach second. Pressly wouldn’t let the error bother him as he got the next hitter, Bryson Stott, to groundout to end the game. Ryan Pressly showed why he is the spin king, throwing 18 pitches only 4 of them fastballs. None of his curves were below 3150 rpm, and he hit 2871 rpm with his slider.
The Astros evened the series at a game a piece, but the Phillies have to be very happy with the series being tied going back to Philly. The Phillies have yet to lose at home so far this postseason, and look to continue that streak while the Astros look to break it during the pivotal game three.